diff --git a/cogl/cogl-buffer.c b/cogl/cogl-buffer.c
index 0600e01b9..48d0a7dcc 100644
--- a/cogl/cogl-buffer.c
+++ b/cogl/cogl-buffer.c
@@ -304,7 +304,8 @@ _cogl_buffer_map_range_for_fill_or_fallback (CoglBuffer *buffer,
   if (ret)
     return ret;
 
-  cogl_error_free (ignore_error);
+  if (ignore_error)
+    cogl_error_free (ignore_error);
 
   /* If the map fails then we'll use a temporary buffer to fill
      the data and then upload it using cogl_buffer_set_data when